Looking for feedback on an idea:
The Whiskeyjacks, my crew of smugglers, have been relatively good at keeping their heat (and their body count) low. Not perfect, but good. Meanwhile, there are a handful of other gangs in the Dusk that have been less-subtle.
Back in the real world, I’ve been playing Batman: the Telltale Series and I’ve been thinking about some kind of Duskwall vigilante who goes after gangs that step out of bounds and endanger bystanders. The sort of thing where if you pull a job in, say, Crow’s Foot, and anybody outside your target dies, the Ghost of Crow’s Foot comes after you, and leaves you beaten and hanging from a lamppost as a warning to anyone else who might try it. He might not interact with the Whiskeyjacks right away, but there might come a day when he collides with, say, Scurlock (who already seems like a Batman villain) and that makes the crew Scurlock’s henchman, from the Ghost’s point of view.
The Ghost would probably be a wealthy rogue, maybe one from a noble family. His legend would give him access to information from street kids, vulnerable families, and even the occasional Bluecoat or Investigator, frustrated by their own limitations. Might even himself be a fallen Investigator?
Has anybody tried this? Do you think it would work? Is this sort of clean-up-the-streets vigilante too far afield from the general tone of the game, even if used sparingly?
I’m probably the wrong person to answer this, because I think Batman, as written is a nonsense unrealistic concept, and therefore I find Blades Batman to be a…nonsense, unrealstic concept. 😉
But to step away from my own prejudices, let’s ask a couple of questions. What is this FOR? Is it just because you think it’d be cool to have Blades Batman? How would he survive in a world with powers the likes of Lord Scurlock? (Who is a Tier 3 faction BY HIMSELF, essentially). Part of what makes Batman even remotely workable as a concept is the fact that he’s Bruce Wayne and has like, $1 trillion of apparently completely disposable income. Representing that in Blades would require a high tier faction, and honestly, I’m not really sure what it adds to the setting. Doubly so when you consider the fact that if this IS a thing in your setting, the PCs are GOING to want to take him down. They might be scared at some point, but then they’re gonna kill someone and go “Well, we’d better get ready to deal with The Ghost.” And I honestly don’t see that ending well.
What if the Ghost is an actual ghost? It possesses people to use up their bodies while it needs a physical form? Maybe some people offer themselves up to it, people who were wronged horribly.
Mike Pureka
Yeah, frankly, I think you’ve hit on a lot of my concerns, but the idea of a Batman-analogue being a nonsense, unrealistic concept in a setting where every island has its own unique weather and the sun never rises and people use steamships to sail on the ink-black, starry sea and suck the blood out of demon-whales to turn into goo that is burned to make a barrier out of lightning to keep all the ghosts out is… mmmmaybe not a big concern.
Adam Schwaninger
Ooh! I like that. Maybe one of the Reconciled? Then I could tie it to an existing faction, in fact a faction the ‘Jacks already have connections to.
It’d probably work best as a Reconciled if you go that route, or at least a spirit who’s been through whatever it is that lets them retain their faculties.
It might make it more like that movie Fallen or the Thing. Literally anyone could be the Ghost. It produces some interesting vulnerabilities, though, if the ‘Jacks’ whisper learns the spirit’s identity. They could Compel it forward and deal with it. Which… hey, cool solution! Now who’s pissed that their street-level protector’s gone?
Nice. Yeah, if the Ghost is effective and the people of the district are happy with its protection, and then suddenly it disappears, how many copycat vigilantes start to crop up?
The idea of body-jumping makes the Ghost’s “Bruce Wayne-scale” resources easier to explain, too, since it’s using multiple people towards its ends. The possibility that its possessions use up its hosts also put the Ghost itself in a tough spot: “how many of these people can I destroy in an attempt to protect them?”
I dig the idea of making it an Actual Ghost, because that makes the human elements (aka “the stuff that I play Blades for”) way easier to rationalize.
There may be value to stepping back from Batman and looking over at Zorro. A key element to any long-term successful vigilante activity is forming a good relationship with the people. The vigilante needs aid, hiding, alibis, and a steady flow of intelligence to be successful.
I would probably make Ulf Ironborn a vigilante goon protecting the Skovlander refugees, but the secret is we’re on our 6th Ulf Ironborn. The sword, beard, and hair are distinctive, and when he dies another rises. The first 3 were a dynastic affair, but now it is a franchise that answers to an informal Skov leadership council. (See also, James Bond.)
Along a similar line, it could be interesting if there was a new disease that was not yet widespread or known to science, that robs you of your death. You cannot die, the only way to get rid of your consciousness forever and permanently separate it from your ever-revivifying tissue is to push you through the Mirror into the Ghost Field. Since no one knows that yet, this guy who cannot die has taken up vigilante action.
Or, maybe that happened fifty years ago and the lucky characters are the ones who steal the barrel he’s been screaming and dying in over and over for fifty years. What do they do with him now?
Or, maybe that happened seventy years ago, and they put him back in, and flavor liquor with his undying and immortal agony by stewing his cyclical death in it.
Or, maybe THAT happened and twenty years afterwards, now, there are whispers learning to sacrifice the undying in numbers repeatedly to revive the practice of limming without human sacrifice, as those “killed” revive. And maybe we discover they can be killed by a leviathan’s rapacious energy needs.
Okay, this one got away from me. sorry about that.
Andrew Shields that’s awesome! My Ulf is already well-established, but I have given him a son who is more warlike and aggressive than he is, who might make a perfect Zorro.